Late career

In the mid 1980s, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian Books.1234 His other books from the period include Role-Playing Mastery5 and its sequel, Master of the Game.6 Gygax also wrote a number of published short stories.

After leaving TSR, Gygax helped form the company New Infinities Productions, Inc. in 1986,7 and was the Chairman of the Board of Directors until 1988.8 Gygax's first role-playing game work for New Infinities was the science fiction RPG Cyborg Commando, published in 1987 (with Kim Mohan and Frank Mentzer).9 Gygax then created Dangerous Journeys, a role-playing game spanning multiple genres,10 published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW),11 and which led to a lawsuit from TSR.12 Gygax authored all of the products for Dangerous Journeys, including Mythus,13 Mythus Magick,14 Epic of Ærth (a companion volume to the Mythus Game),15 Necropolis (an adventure scenario),16 and Mythus Bestiary.17 He subsequently wrote a number of fantasy novels, before beginning work in 1995 on a new RPG. Originally intended as a computer game, Gygax released it as Lejendary Adventure in 1999. One key design goal was simple gaming rules, as Gygax felt that role-playing games were becoming discouragingly complex. Books that Gygax wrote for the Lejendary Adventure series include The Lejendary Rules for All Players,18 Lejend Master's Lore,19 and Beasts of Lejend.20 He also authored or co-authored the three books in The Chronicles of the Lejendary Earth, including Lejendary Earth Gazetteer,21 Noble Kings and Dark Lands,22 and The Exotic Realms of Hazgar.23

Gygax wrote three more novels during the 1990s, released under publisher Penguin/Roc, and later reprinted by Paizo Publishing: The Anubis Murders,2425 The Samarkand Solution,2627 and Death in Delhi.2829 Paizo Publishing also printed Infernal Sorceress, Gygax's "lost" novel.30

Gygax worked on a number of releases with the d20 System under the Open Game License. These included: A Challenge of Arm's31 and The Ritual of the Golden Eyes32 generic adventure modules; The Weyland Smith & Company Giant Fun Catalog ("Joke" Magic Items);33 and The Slayer's Guide to Undead34 and The Slayer's Guide to Dragons35 sourcebooks. Gygax also appeared as the primary author of the entire 64-page magazine in Mythic Masters (Trigee) magazine for each of six issues published through 1994.

In 2005, Gygax returned to the Dungeons & Dragons RPG with his involvement in the creation of the Castles & Crusades system with Troll Lord Games. Troll Lord Games published Castle Zagyg, the previously unreleased original version of Gygax's Castle Greyhawk, with the original dungeon setting for D&D. The Castle Zagyg publications are a planned series of seven sourcebooks, which for trademark reasons are not actually published under the name of Greyhawk. Volumes released so far include Yggsburgh,44 Dark Chateau,45 The East Mark Gazetteer,46 and The Upper Works.47 In 1999, Gygax designed the adventure Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff with Sean K. Reynolds for TSR.48

Gygax lent his voice to cartoons and video games in his later life, including providing the voice for his cartoon self in the episode "Anthology of Interest I" of the TV show Futurama, which aired in 2000.49 Gygax also performed voiceover narration as a guest Dungeon Master in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach.50

1.Gygax, Gary (March 1985). "On the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games". Dragon (95): 12–13. : "A careful examination of the games will quickly reveal that the major influences are Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, A. Merritt, and H.P. Lovecraft."